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Good day, denizens of OC.net! Per our tradition, the forum will shut down for Clean Monday, beginning around 9pm Sunday evening (2/18) and ending around 9pm Monday evening (2/19). In the spirit of the coming Forgiveness Sunday, I ask you to forgive me for the sins I have committed against you. At the end of Great and Holy Week, the Forum will also shut down for Holy Friday and Holy Saturday (times TBA).

After one miscarriage and years of being unable to conceive, by God's grace, we were able to adopt a newborn girl. Her birth parents were not married and were unable to support her.

We named her Brigid Grace. Grace, in thanksgiving to God for His grace shown to us in giving us this child. Brigid after St. Brigid of Ireland. I did not know it at the time but St. Brigid is patron of children born to parents who are not married.

It's always so sad to hear about a miscarriage, i'm so sorry to hear that.

What a beautiful name you have given your adopted newborn girl. May God bless her and keep her healthy.

I have 3 boys and 4 girls.There are lots of cultures, Greek being one of them, that ONLY want boys and nearly discard baby girls as irrelevant. One need only look at China's example of their million man army with no one left for the next generation of men to repopulate with. They either aborted, abandoned, or left in orphanages the baby girls. That issue gets me a bit peeved, as I came from a protestant view that women were the root of all evil. I caringly reminded the men that held that view that Eve didn't have to go on a mission to find Adam and force him at gunpoint to eat the fruit. And why wasn't he protecting her from the serpent????HMMM?

Okay, nuf of that.My children's names are:DÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â°anna Laurin (pronounced "day-on'uh)Alexander ChristianJesse Tyler ( we had used up the names we had always figured on using at this point, and could not agree on a thing!)Christopher RyanHeather Ann MichaelaEmily Marie (who finally got mom's middle name)Hannah Elizabeth

Run of the mill American names to some, but dh would not agree on any Irish names or Irish spellings. The hardest part isn't making the baby usually, it's getting mom and dad to agree on a name! The kids were all shooting for Fiona for Emily and Hannah, but Dad thought it was from Shrek.

I have 3 boys and 4 girls.There are lots of cultures, Greek being one of them, that ONLY want boys and nearly discard baby girls as irrelevant. One need only look at China's example of their million man army with no one left for the next generation of men to repopulate with. They either aborted, abandoned, or left in orphanages the baby girls. That issue gets me a bit peeved, as I came from a protestant view that women were the root of all evil. I caringly reminded the men that held that view that Eve didn't have to go on a mission to find Adam and force him at gunpoint to eat the fruit. And why wasn't he protecting her from the serpent????HMMM?

Okay, nuf of that.My children's names are:DÃƒÆ’Ã†â€™ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚Â°anna Laurin (pronounced "day-on'uh)Alexander ChristianJesse Tyler ( we had used up the names we had always figured on using at this point, and could not agree on a thing!)Christopher RyanHeather Ann MichaelaEmily Marie (who finally got mom's middle name)Hannah Elizabeth

Run of the mill American names to some, but dh would not agree on any Irish names or Irish spellings. The hardest part isn't making the baby usually, it's getting mom and dad to agree on a name! The kids were all shooting for Fiona for Emily and Hannah, but Dad thought it was from Shrek.

Daughters name is Casey- it was the ONLY name we could agree on. when we baptised her we picked Cassiani- so it would be close sounding.

Sons name is Noah, just cause we both agreed. When he was baptised we just kept Noah.

If we have another (maybe soon we'll see.....) if it's a girl we like Halina (polish form of Helen) or Helena, my mother in law is Helen. If it's a boy we like Elijah- no family significane- just like it and it's already a chrisitan name.

And here's the psychotically proud and poor pops who has to pay for all their feminine needs when they reach puberty!: Panagiotis_________________________________________________________________________Blessings,Panagiotis

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"The first condition for the establishment of perpetual peace is the general adoption of the principles of laissez-faire capitalism"-Ludwig Von Mises

LOLThank you both. My daughters are very precious and I love them all dearly. I was wondering if our Lord would grant me a boy but no. Instead I got three challenges ahead for which i may buy lots of ammunition when they reach their teens.

Kyrie Eleison,Panagiotis

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"The first condition for the establishment of perpetual peace is the general adoption of the principles of laissez-faire capitalism"-Ludwig Von Mises

After 5+ years of trying to have our own children and then nearly 3 years of trying to adopt with one crushing disrupted adoption tossed in for good measure, we were richly blessed when we adopted a new born on December 22nd, 2005.

After nearly a decade of trying to have a child, we named her Theodora in deep gratitude to God for bringing her to us.

We call her Dora to which everyone responds...OH! Dora the Explora!....little did we know haha

A bit late, but just wanted to comment that this is the first time I've seen the name Lavrentia other than my cousin, who's parents call her Laurie, but was baptised Lavrentia, and who's saint is St. Lawrence.

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Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

In my family, the traditional name (on both sides) is Nicholas, we have at least one in each generation going back at least 150 years. It was never much of a problem though, because at the moment, there are only my brother Kolya, and my Uncle Nick. Dedushka Kolya passed on 12 years ago.

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Now where were we? Oh yeah - the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didnÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...

My first consideration would always be that the name not be likely to cause the child any problems in their life. Therefore, anything utterly unusual would be out of the question. Similarly, I would name my child in such a way that the name not be strange in the local culture. Thus, although my favorites are anglo-saxon names, I would not give them to any child of mine in Czechia, where I now live.

In Canada, if I had a daughter, I'd like to name her Leslie. Other names I like are: Lindsay, Laura/Laurie/Lori, Rose, and classic, simple Christian names like Mary and Jane. For a boy, I might pick Michael, Dylan, Sean, Steven, Evan, Calvin, Eric, or Jack. As you can see, my choices are very anglo, though I was born in Serbia.

In Czechia, I might name my daughter Ruzhena (means Rosie), or some other name that's not too unusual, but not too common (many names repeat themselves in this country, there are tons of Janas, Marketas and Martinas). A boy I might name Michal (Mi-hull), Vaclav (Vahts-love), or Martin. I would not name my son Jan (Yahn - means John), because I don't like the standard Czech pet form of it - Honza. And there are tons of them.

Mishka is a Russo-Slavic version of Mikela, Michaela, Mikheila or however you want to feminize the name Michael. The name means "Who is like God?" We found the name Mischa and was figuring out how to feminize it. So we transliterated it somewhat, trying to retain the name in meaning. Our Priest approved of the name so she will have two wonderful intercessors watching over her: the Archangel Michael and Tatiana the Martyr of Rome.

Christ is in our midst,Panagiotis

Hello, it's interesting, but Mishka is some diminutive variant of Misha. This name is popular in my country. But a little people know in hornour of whom concreate saint they were named.

My only child is female, 23 at the moment, named Maryana. Her mom picked the name; she was not, as far as I know, given any other name when she was baptized Orthodox, so, probably, it's a legitimate Orthodox girl's name.

Speaking of names, it's funny to me that in the USA, only girls are named Hilary or Hillary, while in my native Ukraine, Illarion (Larion) (the name which is, apparently, the same as the Greek Hilarios) is only male.

My wife is from the Republic of Georgia. We named our son Gabriel for " Mama Gabrieli " ( Father Gabriel ) of Mtskheta. Fr Gabriel is a modern day saint. My wife actually met him before he died in 1995.

Fr Gabriel was a fearless confessor of the Orthodox faith during the communist times. In 1969, he climbed into the tower where the banner portraits of Marx and Lenin were hanging. He soaked them with kerosene and lit them on fire while the May Day parade passed by ! He leaned out of a window and cried: "Stop worshipping these dogs of Satan. Let's worship Jesus Christ ! " The communists dragged him out to the street and beat him to death, or so they thought. His skull was fracured in 4 places; but he survived.

Fr Gabriel was a prophet and he knew the hearts of those who came to him. He also had a great sense of humor. If people were too reverent around him, he would tell a joke or a funny story. One day, he held a plate behind his head and told the people - see this, this is the only halo here !

Fr Gabriel is buried in the Mstkheta convent cemetary, and numerous miracles have occured as a result of his intercession. In fact, we had one of our own. My wife's godson was diagosed with a brain tumor the size of a fist. There was no way to even do a biopsy in Georgia. We were at a loss. How could we bring Gurami to the US? How could we pay for treatment ? We prayed to the Theotokos and Fr Gabriel for help. When we related the situation to my spiritual father, two days later one of his parishioners, a physician called. Brian told me that everything would be provided by St Francis Hospital in Tulsa, without charge. All the doctors would donate their services. Then we had trouble getting a visa, and a lady at church called a friend. Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe personally interceded to get visas for Gurami and his mother. They came, he had a biopsy, and he had an intracranial germ cell tumor, a curable cancer ! Gurami had six weeks of radiation treatment and went home cured ! Two years later , he is a healhy teenager, and won second place in a national math and science competion.

Glory to God who is glorified in his saints ! We didn't get just one miracle,; but a dozen miracles !

Fr Gabriel is a great hero to all Georgians; but especially to us ! What better name for our first son. The doctor who arranged Gurami's treatment, and his wife are our son's god-parents.

If God grants us a daughter, we will call her Mariami, Mariko for short, in honor of the Holy Theotokos.

My husband and I love some of the stranger names. Being born with a strange name myself (my birth name is Stormy Dawn, from the 1980's but in a hippy minded town!) I am actually a fan of the benefits of a unique name and will most likely be able to help them with any of the jokes that may come from their names. We like the names Zosimas and Cyril for boys. As he and I are learning Russian and I have an enjoyment of many languages, we thought St. Cyril would be appropriate since he is one of the people who helped form the Russian Alphabet (aka Cyrillic ) I however, would like to give them the middle names Calvin and Hobbes, one of our favorite comic strip characters. It may not be the most properly Orthodox thing to do, Zosimas Calvin and Cyril Hobbes do have a distinct ring to them

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Turning to the dead body, Peter said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up… and it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.(Acts 9:40-42)

When I was growing up, one of my best friends was named Zebulon (one of the sons of Israel and father of one of the Twelve Tribes), and he had a sister named Keturah (Abraham's second wife). I've had a fondness myself for older names in Christian tradition, even if they've fallen out of use. Who knows, maybe Zosimos will catch on and your son won't be the only one?

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"It is remarkable that what we call the world...in what professes to be true...will allow in one man no blemishes, and in another no virtue."--Charles Dickens

We give our children american indian first names and hebrew middle names. My first name is Shalome, and my husband is part Jewish. And we are both "mutt" american indians. Intermarried/intermingled tribal background. I am Nez Perce, Yakima and Quinault. My husband is Iroquoi and several other tribes.

Naming Oheo was really hard. It took a great deal of going back and forth. We were convinced she was a boy up until the first ultrasound. We picked a name with meaning that we wanted her to embody in the future.

Witalu was concieved after we lost 3 babies at various stages of pregnancy (11 weeks twins and 6 weeks singleton). My husband was in training with the Army most of the year. We seemed to see each other just long enough to get pregnant each time :-\My husband was leaving for war when we found out about her. There were numerous deaths in the family, it was a hard time. Her conception and birth came during a time of mourning and she brought us a great deal life.

We literally had our son Ollokot's name picked for years. Ollokot was a Nex Perce Christian, the brother of Cheif Joseph. And Moshe is after the Biblical Moses and the great Isreali leader.

And we have the next boy and gilr name picked already; Tamootsen (Nez perce: Timothy, my husbands name is Timothy, it means honoring God and a way to have a Jr, without naming him Jr.) Zadok (Hebrew: rightous).

LOLThank you both. My daughters are very precious and I love them all dearly. I was wondering if our Lord would grant me a boy but no. Instead I got three challenges ahead for which i may buy lots of ammunition when they reach their teens.

Kyrie Eleison,Panagiotis

That's certainly true. Those little girls are going to be heartbreakers. I can see it now.

My little boy is named Alexander Stefan. I always liked those names. I don't like "Steven," but I've always liked the "Steffen" pronunciation. In fact, I named a character in one of my "juvenilia" novels "Stefan."

As for "Alexander," I first realized in my teens that I liked that name while watching one of the old Blondie & Dagwood movies from the 1930s. Little Alexander was originally named Baby Dumpling. As he got older, this became less appropriate. So in one movie he said, "Don't call me Baby Dumpling anymore. I want to be called Alexander." So in a sense my boy is named after little Baby Dumpling.

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Author of "Tojet" (fantasy) and "The Lighthouse" (Gothic), info available at my website URL.

Who knows, maybe Zosimos will catch on and your son won't be the only one?

I actually had a little argument with a friend of mine at church and finally resolved it by calling "Dibs" on Zosimos and allowing her to have Bridget as a fair trade. Yes, we are total nerds.... it's okay. Interestingly enough, she is due in about two weeks and her son will be named Liam Jacob Glenn. His patron saint will be Saint William. His name simply screams Irish, it's fantastic.

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Turning to the dead body, Peter said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up… and it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord.(Acts 9:40-42)

We have eleven children (five by birth, four by adoption, one foster, and one in utero). I figured we would have run out of good names by now, but there seem to be some good ones left. Early on, since we unable to conceive, we figured we would only have one or two, so it would be unfair to use family names and leave someone slighted. It turns out that would have worked out great, but now it's too late to reverse course....

Here are the names, in order of arrival:

Joel Timothy (Joel is my first name)Benjamin Luke (My wife liked this one)Philip Jude (He is from Korea, and his middle name was Joo)Miriam Genevieve (The paperwork we got from her British orphanage called her Jenny, so we picked out Genevieve, then we found out that she was never called Jenny -- the orphanage workers just couldn't pronounce her Chinese name. She chose to go by Miriam.)Mary Elizabeth (Betsy)Ruth ClareJohn Michael (He was very active in utero, so we named him after another famous womb-leaper)David JosephNathan Lee (Every David needs a Nathan to keep him straight. Lee is my father-in-law's name. It's also in the Book of Acts, where Paul's ship sheltered from the wind...)Noah James (His real name is Douglas, but his grandmother named him this before entrusting him to our care)

...and we just peeked at the most recent member. It's a girl! We had been calling her Pickles (we pick a gender neutral "work-in-progress" name for all the preborn until we find out the gender), but I want to name her Talitha Hope. This isn't really a saint's name -- will this cause problems if/when the family ever gets Chrismated?

My daughter, who is planning to get married in this coming May, just told me that if her first child is a girl, she will be Sophia (Ukr. diminutive "Sofijka"), and if a boy - Severin (Ukr. diminutive Severynko).